AP Dept of Mines Director rejects opposition's allegation on sand tender process.

 *AP Dept of Mines Director rejects opposition's allegation on sand tender process

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*Tender process is highly transparent; handled by central govt agency MSTC, said Director Venkata Reddy*

*Changes in reserve price were due to re-distribution of districts, says Mines Director*

*Performance security deposit in 2021 was Rs.120 crores, but it is Rs.153 crores in the latest tender, and govt will get additional revenue of Rs 33 crores*

*Due to the free sand policy in the previous government, billions of rupees of revenue went into the pockets of the sand mafia instead of the government. To prevent this exploitation, CM Y S Jagan implements a new sand policy in a very transparent manner*

Amaravati (prajaamaravati): Andhra Pradesh State Department of Mines Director V. G. Venkata Reddy has strongly denied the allegations leveled by the TDP leaders on the sand tender process and said that the changes in package reserve price were due to redistribution of the districts.  

“The allegations are meaningless since the tender process was highly transparent, and it was handled by MSTC, a central government agency. The charges that the reserve price has been reduced are meaningless since the price fixed for three packages in 2021 was Rs.1510 crores but in the latest tenders, it was fixed as Rs.1529 crores. Further, Rs 55 crores reduced in package-2 have been included in the reserve price of package-1. Meanwhile performance security deposit in 2021 was Rs.120 crores but in the latest tenders, it was Rs.153 crores. It means the government will get Rs.33 crores more than last time,” said the Mines Director Venkata Reddy.

He further said that the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle is an internal matter of the successful bidder and only the successful bidder will be liable to the government.

“There is ignorant criticism in the name of Diwali discount without understanding the process. Further, the details of the sand tenders are available online, and anyone check the details. They are spreading false accusations and trying to throw mud on sand tenders for political benefit,” said the director.

*Facts*

1) State Director of Mines V G Venkata Reddy strongly denied in a statement on Sunday that the allegations made by Telugu Desam leaders on the process of sand tenders in the state are completely untrue. They said that the process of tenders is being tampered with by political malice. The changes were made in the package reserve prices due to the re-distribution of districts in the state, and how can they make false allegations without even the slightest knowledge about it...

2) Tenders were called for the three packages in the state on the 7th of this month, fixing the cumulative reserve price as Rs.1529 crores. The opposition leaders are making false accusations that the reserve price decided for the latest package-2 is lower than the one decided in 2021.

- The reserve price for Package-1 was finalized at Rs.470 crores in 2021, but it was recently finalized at Rs.533 crores.

- The reserve price for package 2 was finalized at Rs.740 crores in 2021, it was recently finalized at Rs.691 crores.

- The reserve price for package 3 was finalized at Rs.300 crore in 2021, it was recently finalized at Rs.306 crore.

3) It means that in 2021, the reserve price for three packages was finalized at Rs.1510 crores, whereas in the latest tenders issued notification, Rs.1529 crores has been finalized as the reserve price. Without understanding this, it is ridiculous that the opposition leaders are making noises about irregularities in the sand tenders. Sadly, even those in a responsible position make such false allegations to smear the government without at least checking the facts.

4) Due to the re-distribution of districts, 20 sand reaches that were previously under West Godavari District under Package-2 have now come under East Godavari District under Package-1. As per environmental clearances in these reaches, 14.60 lakh tonnes of sand reserves worth around Rs.55 crores have come under package 1. Accordingly, an additional Rs. 55 crores have been included in the reserve price in package 1. In the same order, the same amount has decreased from package 2. Without understanding this, the opposition leaders are making false allegations that they have reduced the reserve price as a Diwali-Dussehra discount.

5) The opposition leaders have also made accusations without understanding bid security and performance security finalized for sand tenders. In the tenders held in 2021, the amount of bid security has been fixed at Rs.120 crore. Also, the amount of performance security has been fixed at Rs.120 crores. Every bidder submitting tenders shall pay the bid security amount. Only the successful bidder in the tenders will pay the performance security amount. Those who participated in the tenders and did not get the bid will be refunded the bid security amount paid by them.

6) But to encourage more people to participate in the sand tenders, the previously fixed bid security of Rs.120 crores has been reduced to Rs.77 crores in the latest tenders. Due to this, more people will come forward to participate in tenders. In the same order, the performance security from the successful bidder has also been decided to be Rs.153 crores more than the previous one. In this total, Rs.120 crore has been paid to the government as performance security in 2021, while the deposit guarantee held by the government through the latest tenders is Rs.153 crore. This means that the government will have Rs. 33 crore more performance security than before. Ironically, the leaders of Telugu Desam say that this is beneficial to the contractor and this is also illegal.

7) False allegations are also being made about increasing the bid filing date from October 30 to November 6. The prebid meeting was held on 17th October. Various doubts were raised by many participants in this meeting. Reasonable answers to them would have been notified on the 26th. But due to the Dussehra holidays the deadline has been extended as the bidders should be given some time to study them and if the deadline is extended more people will be able to file their bids.

8) During the pre-bid meeting several bidders requested to facilitate the formation of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) for sand operations. It has been requested that the entire operations will be taken up through the SPV. However, it has been made clear that only the selected bidder will be responsible to the government and the selector bidder will also be responsible for the operations of the SPV to be set up by them. If any difficulties arise in this process, the government will recover the amount due to it through the bank guarantee given by the selected bidder. It is not reasonable to make false accusations without understanding this.

9) In the name of the free sand policy in the previous government, billions of rupees of revenue went into the pockets of the sand mafia instead of going to the government. To prevent this exploitation, CM Y S Jagan is creating and implementing a new sand policy in a very transparent manner. Due to this policy, revenue of Rs.765 crores is coming to the government annually. Again, the government is spending this money on public welfare. The sand mafia, which had previously siphoned off all this money, has repeatedly made false accusations against the sand tenders.